Rocky Kolb
Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics, University of Chicago, USA
Date
19 November 2014
Host
Felicitas Pauss
Title
The Decade of the WIMP
Abstract
For over eight decades astronomers have observed that the bulk of the matter in the present universe is dark. The most attractive possibility for the nature of the dark matter is that it is a new species of elementary particle known as a WIMP (a Weakly Interacting Massive Particle). After a discussion of how WIMPs might fit into models of particle physics, I will review the current situation with respect to discovery of the WIMP by direct detection, indirect detection, and collider production. Rapid advances in the field should enable us to answer by the end of the decade whether our universe is dominated by WIMPs, and possibly solve the 80-year old riddle of the nature of dark matter.